Moon Hunters Arrives On Kickstarter August 26th

With a goal set at a modest $45,000, Kitfox Games and Square Enix have announced that Moon Hunters will be arriving on Kickstarter next week, beginning August 26th. The new game combines emergent pixel sprite gameplay with multiplayer role-playing elements to make for a dynamic and ever-changing gameplay experience.

Originally we reported on Moon Hunters being one of the first games to join Square Enix's new marketing platform for independent developers called the Collective. The service basically helps indie developers – those who get accepted onto the platform after Square goes through an assessment process – develop a community and potential engagement for the project before further steps are taken to initiate a full-fledged crowd-funding drive.

Allocating feedback from the core audience is actually a pretty good way of gauging whether or not a game may be able to pick up traction to make waves on the crowd-funding scene.

Lead designer on Moon Hunters, Tonya Short, commented about the game making the transition to Kickstarter, saying...

“The team is really eager to show off what we’ve been working on and get more input from the community,” ...“Collective has helped us find our audience for a mythology-building RPG, getting the word out about this beautiful game we’re trying to make.”

Short was fine with Square's Collective, and even mentioned that the 5% skim that Square Enix would take for a successful run on Kickstarter was a-okay with the team. Previously Short had mentioned that the Collective was free publicity for Moon Hunters, and hopefully that publicity translates into something worthwhile when the crowd-sourcing begins.

Phil Elliott, project lead and front-man for Square's Collective – a guy who has had his fair share of criticisms for pushing the project – stated that...

“Moon Hunters caught my eye very early on with its great visual style and design bursting with personality - and gamers echoed that with strong support during the game’s feedback campaign,” .... “Since getting to know the team at Kitfox Games over the past 9 months, we’re really happy to be supporting them through their Kickstarter - we’ve learnt a great deal since Collective launched fully in April, and we’ll put all of that experience into this campaign and help the team get the best result they can.”

Some gamers didn't feel as if a large software publisher should be meddling with indie devs and the crowd-funding scene, while others feel as if all is fair with indie games and raising capital.

Of course, this all boils down as to how well gamers take to games like Moon Hunters – a procedural, ever-changing RPG multiplayer experience. It reminds me a lot of Heart Machine's Hyper Light Drifter, and as far that comparison goes, I'm already interested.

Players will work together to solve puzzles, build mythologies and uncover loot and goods by traveling through the various and dangerously escalating dungeons.

If you're interested in learning more about the game, feel free to check out the very extensive and well-received entry on the Collective page. We'll keep you posted on when the game will launch on Kickstarter.